Sensation seeking correlates with increased white and grey matter integrity of structures associated with visuospatial and decision-making processing in healthy adults

Background: The ability to process sensory information is an essential adaptive function, and hyper- or hypo-sensitive maladaptive profiles of repones to environmental stimuli generate sensory processing disorders linked to cognitive, affective, and behavioural alterations. The research on neuroradiological correlates of the sensory processing profiles is still in its infancy and is mainly limited to the young-age population or neurodevelopmental disorders. So, the knowledge concerning the impact of the different sensory profiles on the structural and functional characteristics of the typically developed adult brain remains largely obscure. In this framework, this study aims to examine the structural and functional MRI correlates of sensory profiles in a sample of healthy adults. Method: We investigated structural T1, Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), and resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) correlates of Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) questionnaire subscales in 57 typical developing subjects (34 females; mean age: 32.7±9.3). Results: Only the AASP sensation seeking subscale provided significant results. Positive and negative correlations emerged with FA and RD in arcuate fasciculus (AF), anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), optic radiation (OR), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), corpus callosum (CC), and the dorsal part of the cingulum bundle (dCB). In addition, we found a positive correlation between sensation seeking and grey matter volume in the parahippocampal cortex (PHC), precentral gyrus (PG), inferior temporal gyrus (IFG) and cuneus regions, and with cortical thickness in the IFG and postcentral gyrus (PCG). We did not find any correlation between rs-fMRI parameters and AASP subscales. Conclusion: Overall, our results suggest a positive correlation between sensation seeking and higher structural integrity in critical regions mainly involved in visuospatial and decision-making processing. We speculate that the better structural integrity associated with sensation seeking might at least partially reflect a possible neurobiological substrate of this sensory profile, characterized by active research of sensory stimuli and impulsive decision-making tendency. Further studies are needed to investigate the neuroradiological correlates of sensory profiles and their impact on behaviour, cognition, and affectivity in different developmental stages and psychiatric disorders.